Hi all,
Last weekend, Saturday 7th July, l took part in DSUK’s first Access For All Race League as a coach at Hemel Hempstead Snow Dome and what a day it was!
Some of you may already know what this is and others may not, so here’s what happened! 🙂
The Access For All Race League provides the opportunity for anybody with or without a disability to race competitively or not. It is open to all abilities and as long as the competitors could ski the main slope at the centre they were racing!
It was an early start with a 07.30 registration but this did not seem to bother any racer, everyone was there and ready to hit the slopes for 8 o’clock. The first 2 and a half hours allowed all the skiers to get their ski legs, practise and become accustomed to a race course with bespoke coaching from the staff and organisers at the event. During this time, l coached a very competent skier, who was in a Bi-unique with tethers and riggers. She was skiing fantastically and after a brief warm up was ready to try the two training courses that had been set up with brushes and stubbies (short/small gates about a foot high). I really enjoyed tethering through the race courses and found it particularly interesting trying to not get stuck in the ruts (and end up on the floor!) 😛 The coaching during the morning was perfect as many skiers had never raced before and so by half 10 everyone was buzzing and eager to race! Yipppiiieee 🙂
As the skiers had a quick coffee break, Nick Hatherly, myself and the team were busy setting up the main race course with full gates and timing equipment. By 11 o’clock this was all finished and once all the final equipment tests were completed it was all systems goooo!! Everybody was to have two runs of the course and the starting order was divided up into following ski categories with Visually Impaired going first, then sit skiers and the stand up skiers afterwards. Before l knew it, l was at the top with my Skier in the Bi-ski and once the tethers were on we all set! We pushed ourselves to the start gate and were given a ready, set, GO and we were off!! We FLEW and did a great first run without missing any gates 🙂 “Let go again!” l heard from my skier “…that was great fun!” and so once everyone had skied once, up we went again for our second run and this time was similar to the first so we had two cracking runs to our names!
As well as many individuals taking part, BDST (British Diabled Ski Team), CSDST (Combined Service Disabled Ski Team), and the British Development Squad also competed. Every skier that skied did brilliantly and considering this was the first time for some was absolutely amazing to watch!! Well done to all the skiers!!
Once everyone had raced it was time to strip the course (take it down!) and calculate the final timings for the presentation.
The Presentation was hosted by Charlie Laine – Lead DSUK Instructor at Milton Keynes, and was brilliant! The fastest two people in each category got a medal and it was smiles all round! 😀 😀
Again, a huge Well Done to all racers and it’s helpers and organisers for making it such a successful day!
DSUK’s aim is to have a full Race League at all 5 of the Snow Domes in the country within next 2 years! Lets make this happen!!
For the race results of Hemel’s race please click here and for more information on the leagues please click here.
Pictures below and from the event can be found on the following link –Â www.catchthatmoment.co.uk
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